Birth of the New CardCaptors
by KyoudaiDoushi
Summary: She felt like a passenger in her own body as they both crouched at the edge, a few hundred feet in the air. Dread filled her as she suddenly realized what they were about to do. Muscles tensed, she mentally screamed useless discouragement to whomever was the insane fool in controlling her body before they both jumped-


Index:

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

"_**Card Summoning/Spell Invocations"**_

**Chapter 1: Birth of the New CardCaptors**

Looking up at the brightly lit form of Tokyo Tower, they stood at the edge of the building, lead to the point by a sirens song. Around them, red and gold cards seemed to fall from the sky, each with the imagine of a Humanoid figure on them. From the corner of her eye, she could see the distinctive golden pigtails of her cousin crouched beside her, staring down as something on the ground with an expression she'd never seen on her face before, one of supreme annoyance. Despite her curiosity, however, she couldn't seem to take her center vision from the Tower itself, drawn to something up there, seemingly just out of her range of vision.

Unwillingly, her body took a step closer to the edge as she tapped her oddly shaped baton against her palm, her lips forming a word that left a bloom of warmth in her chest before feather's obscured her vision, though the world around her was strangely muted, leaving her unable to hear _what_ she had said that caused it. Beside her, she felt more than saw her cousin do the same, while the strange yellow _floating_ plushie between them mutely said something and nodded in a manner that somehow felt encouraging.

She felt like a passenger in her own body as they both crouched at the edge, a few hundred feet in the air. Dread filled her as she suddenly realized _what_ they were about to do. Muscles tensed, she mentally screamed useless discouragement to whomever was the insane fool in controlling her body before they both _jumped_-

-oOoOoOo-

Jerking awake with a gasp of surprise, Sakura blinked tiredly as she stared blankly at her blaring alarm clock, the memory of her strange dream lingering in her mind like morning fog, refusing to burn away even as her conscious mind became more alert. Hearing her Father calling her for breakfast, she did her best to shake away her unease, quickly dressing before flying down the stairs, already running late. With The Odd Dream still on her mind, she barely even managed to foster a response to her brother's teasing about her stomping around like a monster, eating almost mechanically at a speed usually reserved for her cousin's bottomless pit before following Touya out the door as he left early for soccer practice, completely missing the concerned glance her brother and father shared over her head in regards to her behavior.

The Odd Dream, capitalized, as she'd come to call it, always left her feeling like her head was filled with fluff the whole day, resulting in her barely paying attention to class and more than likely screwing up something during cheerleader practice over something she could normally do in her sleep, like baton practice. She had more than few bumps to the head from that after having the Odd Dream. Now, under normal circumstances she would have probably just written it off as her subconscious trying to work through some odd longstanding issue she just wasn't consciously aware of... if it wasn't for the fact that her cousin, Usagi, had the exact same dream. It had been, in fact, nearly two years before that they had both had the Odd Dream while she was sleeping over at her cousin's house. They would have never known they'd had the same dream if she hadn't found Usagi filling her sketchbook, page after page, with images from the Odd Dream.

With her Father being an archeology professor, who frequently dealt with the unexplainable from ancient societies, her brother capable of seeing that from the Unseen World and her Uncle Kenji, Usagi's Father, being the editor for a tabloid/newspaper that often dealt out titles such as "The Haunted Apartment Building" -though the whole family knew how much he hated having to muddle through the, in his words 'ridiculous', stories and edit them for their grammatical value instead of their content-, they both had a very healthy belief and respect for the world of the supernatural... and a perhaps not-so healthy fear of ghost, something they blamed entirely on Touya and his insistence in scaring them witless with his stories of the things around them he could See when they were kids.

For those reasons, she didn't doubt she and Usagi were having that Dream for a reason. Though _what_ exactly that reason was was something neither of them could figure out. What she did know was that the re-occurrence of the Odd Dream she'd had the night before had been probably the clearest she'd ever had. Usually it was like trying to see through a dirty window or from underwater. This time it felt like she was actually _there_, if not a passenger in the whole thing. Like she was tethered to the back of her own head; there, but not really _there_.

The fog in her brain lifted briefly when a presence made itself known in the form of Touya's best friend, Yukito, only to be drowned in another kind of fog that never failed to amuse her brother: puppy love. Luckily for her, however, the platinum-haired teen seemed completely oblivious to her crush... or was at least polite enough not to tease her about it. Fortunately, a presence just as powerful as that of Yukito's made itself known before she could give her brother anymore teasing material. Their cousin, Tsukino Usagi.

"Morning, Sakura-chan! Touya-kun! Yukito-kun!" the blonde moon bunny chirped as she bound up to them, her odango-style pigtails bouncing around her shoulders at least, if Sakura wasn't mistaken, three inches longer than they had been when they'd seen her at the end of the previous school year. She could never understand how her cousins, both Usagi _and_ Tomoyo, could have such long, thick hair. Or, really, just how they could have it so _long_. She'd tried, when they were younger, to grow her hair long like they did; in a fit of frustration with it after the nth time she'd sat on it or gotten it caught on something or she'd woken up with it tangled so badly she couldn't help but wonder _what_ she had been doing in her sleep, she'd stormed down stairs took the kitchen sheers to it. Despite the horror her actions had induced in her cousins, she'd kept it short ever since.

"Morning, Usagi-chan." Sakura murmured, catching the look in her cousin's eye as soon as she got close; she hid it better than she herself did, what with her bouncing and chirpy behavior, just like every other morning -despite being just about the opposite of a morning person as one could get-, but she could tell her blonde cousin had slept about as deeply as she had.

"Good morning, Usagi-chan." Yukito greeted cheerfully, hopping up onto the back of his friend's bike as he took off for the school, the two Primary Schooler's falling in beside them, on foot and skate respectively "You don't usually join us until we're dropping Sakura-chan off at the gate... and Touya and I started off much earlier than usual today. Something different happen this morning to make you get up so early?" he questioned, a slight lit of worry underlining his tone.

"It's nothing, Yukito-kun. We didn't get back into town until almost ten and I ended up having a very Odd Dream." Usagi shrugged, vaulting over a trashcan without loosing her pace, trading a look with Sakura that spoke volumes "It woke me before my alarm clock even went off."

Yukito hummed thoughtfully, shifting with almost absently with the bike without losing his balance, despite only holding lightly to the back of his friend's backpack, as the group tore around the last corner to the school "Well, they say that dreams are your subconscious trying to tell you something."

"Yeah," Usagi snorted "it's probably trying to tell me I need to lay off the sweets before bed, especially two hours after my normal bedtime."

Chuckling, the snow bunny shook his head and tossed the girls a couple pieces of candy as Touya poured the speed, determined to get to their half of the school before their coach killed the both of them for cutting it so close "Have a good day you two!"

"You too, Yukito-kun, Touya-kun!" Usagi chirped, waving at them as the two teens sped away.

"Bye, Yukito-san..." Sakura called softly, cradling the candy in her hand like it was made of pure gold.

"That was pretty smooth, wasn't it?" a voice questioned from behind them, causing Sakura to jump in shock. "Giving you that present just as they left."

"Tomoyo-chan! Don't do that!" Sakura yelped, barely heard over the the blonde missile that was the oldest of the three cousins.

"Tomoyo-chan!" Usagi squealed as she launched herself at her dark-haired cousin "How was your summer? Did you get the book I sent you?"

"Yes, I got it, Usagi-chan." Tomoyo smiled, smoothly detangling herself from Usagi's grip with the easy of long practice.

"You got her a present? Why didn't I get a present?" Sakura pouted, pulling her extra gear off as the blonde rolled her across the yard towards the locker room.

"You _did_ get a present, I just couldn't fit it in the box." Usagi explained, bending down to help her cousin unbuckle her skates "I don't know _why_ Daddy insisted we all had to go with him to Osaka of all places. It's not like we did anything but loiter around the hotel while he did his thing with the newspaper. And he made Shingo and I miss the first week of school! I don't like school any more than the next normal person, but _still_!"

"Dad goes through there all the time on the way to the University." Sakura mused absently, shoving her skates in her locker before changing the subject "Do you know if you're still on the squad?"

"I don't know. Yamanaka-sensei _hates it_ when people don't show up for practice." Usagi seemed to melt, even her pigtails seemed to become limp in her depression "You remember Ichigo-chan? Sensei didn't let her back on the team for the rest of the _year_ and she only missed _one practice_!"

"I'm sure Yamanaka-sensei will understand, Usagi-chan." Tomoyo comforted, knowing what being on the team meant to the blonde. "After all, you didn't just miss the practice but school as a whole. And I know you're Mom would have given you a letter or called the school to explain."

"Somehow, I don't think it would make a difference..." Usagi mumbled, pulling her inside shoes on. She may not have enjoyed the squad like Sakura did -due entirely to her fear of heights and the fact that Yamanaka-sensei _always_ insisting she take the flier position because of the dramatic way her hair flared out when she twirled- but she'd joined and forced herself to stay just so she could spend more time with her cousin, something she couldn't do very often outside of school because her Father didn't like Sakura's anymore than Tomoyo's Mother did, a meeting between them always eventually resulting in an argument.

Sakura and Tomoyo were quiet at that, unable to think of something to counter that, probably very true, statement. The tension with broken, luckily, by the second bell, warning stragglers to get their butts to class before they were marked tardy.

"We'll think of something, Usagi-chan, even if it means thinking of something else we can do together." Sakura sighed, tugging the blonde in behind her. She really wished they'd bring back the gymnastics team, as both she and Usagi had been on it, as well as the general martial arts clubs they'd initially joined in a vain hope that they could force their older brother/cousin to stop picking on them, but the budget cut from the year before meant the art and gym clubs were the first, and far from the last, things to go. They'd even gotten rid of the kendo club, and that was probably the most popular club in school with the boys.

Trudging their way into the building, Sakura couldn't help but notice the way many of the other students looked at them now that the trio was back together. They all were pretty popular, but it always seemed to be her cousins who attracted the most attention. Their friend Reika had once described them as the three faces of the moon; Usagi on the light side, Tomoyo on the dark with Sakura being that which laid between.

If she'd been the jealous sort, Sakura would have probably felt rather plain between them. Usagi, with her fair skin, sapphire eyes and golden-blonde curls up in what was practically her trademark style, considering she'd never seen anyone else capable of pulling it off -and believe her, some of their classmates had _tried_- was a friend of _everyone_; she honestly couldn't think of _anyone_ who didn't like her, even those that started out disliking her for usually petty reasons. And Tomoyo, with a porcelain complexion, an amethyst gaze and hair that fell in long, dark, natural waves was like looking at a Feudal Princess that just stepped out of the history books; she may have seemed far more inverted than them, but it was, what Sakura thought of as, a cleverly designed disguise, meant to throw you off so that you just couldn't stay mad at her, no matter what hair-pulling frustration she'd recently caused, something that happened... frequently. Especially if it involved her camera. All she had going for her was her emerald colored eyes.

Shaking herself away of the mental jealousy pit she was dangerously close to falling into, Sakura wrapped her arm around Usagi's and pulled her close. "So... about this Dream you had last night? Anything new?"

Blinking a few times, Usagi pulled herself from her mental depression over her, in her mind, inevitable ejection from the cheer squad, her whole demeanor -and pigtails- immediately perking up. "Oh! Yeah, the whole thing with oddly clear. Not fuzzy like it normally is. Though it still felt like someone put blinders on the world; I just couldn't see anything outside a couple hundred feet away..." she mused before turning her gaze to her cousin "Did we... _really_ jump off the roof of a building?" she questioned hesitantly, completely unable to see herself doing something that... well, _crazy_. She didn't even like getting tossed in the air! Why the heck would she _willingly __**jump**_ off a building?!

Sakura could only nod in agreement, both to the spoken question and unspoken statement clearly playing on Usagi's face. They'd figured out only months after the first Dream that when one had it, the other did too, and they always seemed to see it from different perspectives. Sharing gave them a much bigger picture than they could have ever gotten on their own.

Sighing heavily, Usagi just shook her head, steering her thoughts back to where they were before "There was definitely someone on the ground below us though. They were just too far away to make out any details other than the fact that they were there... and their presence gave me a distinct feeling of supreme annoyance... like ten times worse than what you feel dealing with Touya when he's in one of his teasing moods. I honestly can't say the last time I felt that way towards someone. What about you?"

"I could have sworn there was someone on the Tower, but it was just outside my range. My focus seemed to have been on that floating plushie and those cards." Sakura explained after a moment of thought.

"Oh! The cards!" Usagi squealed soften, aware of everyone around them trying to listen in as she dug her sketchbook out of her bag, glancing at the clock as she did; they still had a few minutes. "I think I finally got a basic design off of them." she explained, showing off a rough sketch of a rectangular card featuring an oval surrounding three interconnected, overlapping squares, inside of which was a circle with stylized sun. On the top left corner of the design was another circle, in which a sideways crescent moon laid. The design wasn't colored, but Sakura distinctly remembered the cards being red and gold.

"Huh. Looks like some sort of alchemical circle." Tomoyo commented, twisting the picture around to examine the vague symbols Usagi had drawn along the side with lines drawn to where they were suppose to go in the circle, clearly guessing as to the actual shapes of them based on other symbols she knew.

"You've been reading way too much Full Metal, Tomoyo-chan." Usagi replied, but couldn't help but agree; maybe she'd look up alchemy symbology when she got home "My first thought was actually a magic circle of some sort. You know, like in Negima?"

"Could be a little of both." Sakura suggested "A lot of stories I've read talk about how once you get to a high enough level, magic and science are one and the same."

"Maybe..." Tomoyo agreed before pouting slightly, letting Usagi put the book away as they slipped into their seats "Really, it's kinda unfair. How come I don't have these dreams too?" she whined lightly, causing her cousins to snicker.

"Figures she'd look at it from that angle instead of why we _have_ them." Usagi whispered as their homeroom teacher walked into the room, Sakura silently nodding in agreement.

-oOoOoOo-

The day ended with their predictions coming true -Sakura dropping her baton on her head in a moment of inattention and their, in their words, totally unfair Yamanaka-sensei kicking Usagi off the team for no fault of her own- leading a depressed moon bunny to follow her cousin home. After reading that her Uncle wouldn't be home until late, Usagi, eager to spend more time with her less crazy cousin, promptly called her Mother to let her know she would be spending the night, fabricating an excuse for her Father about catching up on missed homework from the trip he _just had_ to take them on; her Father may not have liked him, but her Mother had no problems with her late twin sister's husband. The way she saw it, she got married to Kenji only a year after her sister had Fujitaka. The real problem her husband and cousin, Sonomi, had with the man was the fact that he was ten years their senior... well, that was Kenji's problem with him. Sonomi's had been of a much more... possessive nature.

Their attempt at finishing their homework was interrupted less than an hour later by a low rumbling sound, unlike anything they had ever heard before, echoing through the house, sending shivers of fear down their spines.

"Father and Touya-nii aren't home yet." Sakura whispered, clutching her baton close as they peaked around the doorway "It's coming from Father's study... what if it's a burglar?"

"We locked the door when we came in." Usagi whispered back, creeping forward to peak through the cracked door "And the lights are all still off. Besides, Fujitaka-jisan just has books down there. Who would break in to steal books?" the statement wasn't helped much, however, as the sound once again echoed up the stairway.

"What if it's a ghost?" Sakura squeaked.

Usagi trembled briefly at the thought before her more logical mindset kicked back in "I'm pretty sure Touya-kun would have said something if you guys were being haunted, if only to tease you. He's the one he says they follow around, after all... and I'm pretty sure ghosts don't make that much noise."

"Should we go down?" Sakura questioned, clutching her baton tighter.

Biting her lip, Usagi silently stuck her head through the door to look down the stairs, hearing nothing but the slow, deep rumbling noise. Really, if she didn't know any better she would almost say it sounded like... breathing? Puzzled, she pulled her head back and gave her cousin a perplexed look. "It almost sounds like that one time Touya-kun had that really bad cold, only... bigger."

"Tsukino Usagi, if you dare tell me there's a monster snoring in Daddy's study I'm going to smack you with my baton!" Sakura hissed, waving said weapon at her cousin as a good deal of her fear drained away at the mere thought.

"I didn't say that!" Usagi hissed back, waving her hands in front of her in denial "I'm just telling you what is sounds like! Besides," she paused, glancing back at the door "you remember Tomoyo-chan saying the study echoes kinda like an acoustic chamber Sonomi-basan had built for her? Whatever's making that sound is probably no where near at big as it sounds." she explained, stepping into the entryway with more confidence than she felt a few minutes before. Pulling Sakura in after her, they quietly crept down the stairs, peaking around bookshelves, the sound getting quieter and quieter the further in they went. Reaching the last isle, they both jumped around the corner with a fixed glare prepared for the one who has scared them so, only to see... nothing?

"There's no one here?" Sakura questioned, both girls blinking almost comically as they scanned what they could see of the study, trying to locate the sound.

"Huh... I figured we'd find a stray dog or something down here. You know Oji-san sometimes leaves the window open." Usagi agreed, resting a hand on her hip as she scratched the base of one of her pigtails in bewilderment.

There search was halted as a glow in the isle behind them lit up the immediate area, drawing their attention to "A glowing book?" Sakura questioned, baffled. Of all the things they had expected to find, that hadn't been anywhere _near_ the list, much less actually on it.

Creeping forward, Usagi hesitantly reached for the glowing object, freezing briefly as it abruptly stopped, before pulling it off the shelf.

"That book!" Sakura gasped, peaking over cousin's shoulder at the winged lion on the red and gold cover.

"Huh?"

Before she could answer, the latch on the book sparked and popped open, startling both girls and nearly causing the blonde to drop it. Trading a look with her cousin, Usagi careful opened the cover, revealing the book to be a book safe containing some _very familiar_ looking cards. Flabbergasted, the cousins traded another look and pulled one each from the top of the pile, flipping them over to reveal tarot card-like figures, the script at the bottom causing Usagi to groan in annoyance, despite the tense situation.

"That's English, isn't it?" she questioned her cousin, wrinkling her nose at it. She was _horrible_ at reading English.

"Yeah, I think so." Sakura agreed, examining the two cards. The one Usagi held had a woman with vining leafs for hair, sort of like the stories of forest nymphs, while her's had a woman with hair shaped somewhat like antenna and a cloak that looked something like dragonfly wings. "It says Win... less? Win-" she attempted to sound out the word on the card, moving further into the light of the study to get a better look, unaware of the light, misty breeze that was kicked up with every step... but her cousin was.

"Sakura-chan...?"

"_**Windy**_?"

"Sakura-chan!" Usagi cried out as a Summoning Circle appeared at their feet, a gale-force wind spinning to life around them, both girls seeking to protect their faces with their arms, unconsciously clutching the cards they held tighter. After several seconds, the winds died down enough to feel safe opening their eyes, their vision clearing just in time to watch as the remaining cards were torn from the book, unbelievably shooting _through_ the ceiling with a blue flash, like they were passing through tiny, card-sized portals specifically designed to allow them to escape the basement study.

As the last card vanished, the summoning circle faded, leaving Usagi to dropped the book from her suddenly nerveless fingers, both girls sinking to their knees in wordless shock of what had just happened. Before they could even begin to process the event, however, the book once again began to glow, the cousins clutching each other in fear of _something else_ happening, only for a yellow plushie-like... well, _plushie_ they both recalled from the Odd Dream to rise out of the cover and begin babbling at them in...

"An Osaka accent?" Usagi questioned, easily recognizing the accent from her family's recent trip... even if said accent wasn't about as distinguishable to most Japanese as a thick New York accent was to an American. She couldn't help but snort in amusement when her cousin suddenly acted without her brain's authorization, twisting and turning the plushie-like Being like a malfunctioning toy, mumbling about trying to find it's battery compartment or off switch, despite _knowing_ he had none.

"I'm no toy!" the plushie finally cried, wrenching himself from Sakura's grasp, landing back on the cover of the book. "I am Keroberos, the Beast of the Seal that guards this book!"

The cousins could only stare at him in silent wonder, wondering _what_ precisely they'd just gotten themselves into.

"Looking after the cards in this Book so they don't cause any trouble is my j-" the small Guardian suddenly froze as the book lifted itself behind him, revealing the empty cavity within. "Yabai! The cards are gone?! Where did they go?!" he wailed, slumping against the book in shocked disbelief.

"Umm..." holding up the card in her hand, Sakura glanced between it and the Guardian a couple times before holding it out to him "This?"

Twisting around, Keroberos grinned, plucked the card up and nodded rapidly "Yep! This is it." he said, clearly _very_ relieved to see it... before his mind caught up to the fact that there was only _one_ card there. "Sooo... where are the others?"

"Ah... I've got one here as well, Keroberos-san." Usagi volunteered, suddenly _very_ glad that her ability to read English was sub par. If reading out loud the word on that _one_ card called up a gale-force wind, she wasn't certain she _wanted_ to know what the one in _her_ hand would do. Know her luck, she might have ended up accidentally destroying her Uncle's house with it.

"That's Wood." Keroberos said after a moment, taking the card from her, missing the way both girls flinched as he read the name on the card out loud like Sakura had, only without any effect... clearly there was a trick to actually making it work that she had accidentally tapped into "And the others?"

"Well..." Sakura hesitated. Sure, the small plushie-like Guardian didn't _look_ very intimidating, but then again, neither had those innocent looking cards and look at what _it_ had done; they were lucky her father's study was still intact. "We found the book on the shelf and I was trying to sound out what the word said... English isn't really easy, you know..."

"Yeah?"

"And I finally came up with Windy..."

"Uh-huh?"

"And a small tornado suddenly kicked up around us as the card glowed..."

"And then?"

"And then..." she hesitated again "the cards all blew away."

"Passed right through the ceiling." Usagi couldn't help but add, still wondering how _that_ worked.

All three of them suddenly let loose a sort of ironic laughter, with the cousin's holding just a slight note of nervousness, before it suddenly seemed to click in the Guardian's mind what they had just said.

"What?!"

-oOoOoOo-

Dinner that night, made courtesy of Touya, was torn through as a pace that, while not unusual for Usagi, was a speed Sakura usually reserved for rushing after her brother in the morning when he was going to meet Yukito, leaving the teen warily eying his own meal as the girls rushed upstairs with their deserts, half-wondering if his best friend's and cousin's bottomless pits were contagious. Said girls were quick in closing Sakura's door in case her brother got snoopy, spying the glowing form of the Sun Guardian meditating over the Book of Clow trying, as he had since they'd snuck him and the book up there from the basement, to locate the recalcitrant Clow Cards.

"Any luck?" Usagi questioned, setting her desert on the desk as he stopped glowing and all but _flopped_ back on to the Book.

"None. I can't tell where _any_ of the Cards are... which is strange. I should, in the very least, be able to sense the more powerful ones. The Light and the Dark if nothing else." Keroberos explained, eying the two plates of pudding the two girls would soon learn was a mistake to set near him. "It's almost like they're _hiding_ from me... I didn't know they could even _do that_. They should _be able_ to do that!" he grunted in frustration before slumping back against the Book "There were Clow Cards in this Book."

"Clow Cards? Is that what they're called?" Usagi questioned, the Wood card sitting face down on her sketchbook as she redrew it next to the copy she'd drawn from the memory in the Odd Dream, filling in the sections she's had to guess at due to their vagueness or her unfamiliarity with them.

"Yes. Those cards were made by my creator and Master, an amazing sorcerer named Clow Reed." Keroberos explained "However, the cards are sentient. They are, basically, self-contained summoning contracts to the spirits whom appear on their faces, the Cards being a... room, I guess you could call it, for each of these spirits, meant to keep them safe from those who would harm or abuse them, as well as keep them from causing trouble. I'm sure you've heard legends of unexplainable catastrophes in the past?"

"Yeah. Mythology usually puts them down to malevolent Youkai and mischievous apparitions." Sakura nodded.

"Same basic concept." the Guardian shrugged, having heard those stories even in his former Master's time. Being what he was, however, he knew the truth. "Spirits like those that exist within the Cards causing trouble. Most in Clow Reed's time just exterminated them or banished them away, not understanding that they are representations of the natural order of the world. Master Clow created what he felt was a better way to keep them causing chaos, taming them I guess you could say, as well as using them for the good of the world."  
"So the spirits in these Cards... they're slaves?" Usagi questioned softly, unconsciously holding the Wood card protectively to her chest, absently noticing the way it glowed lightly at her actions, a feeling of reassurance brushing against her mind.

"No, not slaves." Keroberos immediately denied, not missing the Card's reaction either, nor the sympathetic look Sakura gave the Windy card beside him "They aren't prisoners within the Cards. The Cards aren't inescapable cells, merely... an outer shell, I guess you can call it. They can full come into this world in their natural forms if they wish, they simple choose not to... most of the time." he amended. "Most of them made a contract with Master Clow for _protection_. Others, such as the Fight, the Twin and the Firey were attracted to his power. Only a few, most notably the Thunder and the Snow, were little more than mindless beasts, _literally_ forces of nature, before Master Clow tamed them, offering them a safe haven with his power if they would agree to aid him when he called on them, protecting them against those that were trying to destroy them for the trouble they were causing." he explained.

"Near the end of his life, however, Master Clow realized that these spirits, literally nature personified and far more powerful than any current natural event, would be far too dangerous to simply release back into the world. They would upset the balance. Catastrophe would befall the world and follow him into death. So he created this Book and placed me, the Beast of the Seal, on the front cover..." he finished before pointing the spoon he's somehow gotten his hands on at the brunette before him "In any case, we have to get the cards back. So you're coming with me."

"Why me?" Sakura squeaked, startled by the random change in subject.

"You're the one that scattered the cards with the Windy spell." Keroberos answered, as if the answer should have been obvious, seemingly forgetting that he was dealing with a ten-year-old girl with no previous experience in _anything_ related to magic outside manga, not an all-powerful sorcerer who had apparently spent his entire life taming the spirits of nature personified like they were stray cats.

"B-But wasn't it your job to keep those cards properly sealed away?" Sakura stuttered in denial, noting her cousin coming to stand at her side while she argued with the plushie-like Guardian.

"Well, I accidentally fell asleep..."

"For how long?!"

"About thirty years." Kero answered sheepishly.

"And you call yourself the Beast of the Seal?" Sakura grumbled.

"Stuff happens, alright! Try staying awake for a couple hundred years and see how you do!" Kero growled defensively.

The cousins were silent at that, giving him a reluctant understanding look before Usagi raised a 'I-told-you-so' brow at Sakura. The noises they'd heart _had_ been snores.

"In any case, the fact that you could open this Book means that you have at least some magical powers, so-." Kero continued as if they hadn't gotten sidetracked over the fact that he'd fallen asleep... and into a mild depression, but that was a story for another time.

"Umm... actually..." Usagi spoke up, once again making her presence known, fidgeting slightly when the Sun Guardian gave her a questioning look "Sakura-chan called upon the Windy card, but _I_ was the one who was holding the book when it sparked and opened up." she explained "I may have activated the Wood card before she summoned Windy if it wasn't for the fact that she's about a thousand times better at reading English than I am."

"Both of you?" Kero inquired, blinking a few times as his wheels of his brain spun uselessly at that fact "That's... never happened before."

"You want to explain that statement?" Usagi interrogated, pinning the plushie with a Look that _proved_ she was, in fact, related to Kinomoto Touya, a look the Sun Guardian would learn to be _extremely_ wary of being on the receiving end of in the future.

Sighing heavily, Kero floated in front of them at eye-level over the Book, his entire demeanor completely serious "I have many titles: Beast of the Seal, Sun Guardian and, most importantly in this matter, the Selector. Master Clow gave me the task of choosing his successor as the Master of his Cards, their new Master and protector. I have chosen many with potential, but most of them just couldn't hack it. Others, I misjudged their moral integrity and was forced to use the Erase to strip their memories of myself and the Cards to protect us. One..." he hesitated, his tone becoming softer... sadder... "She made it were all others had failed. I would have been proud to call her Mistress. But she died before her full potential could be met." he lamented, keening softly for the loss of a friend, shuttering slightly as energy invaded his body from the fingers running soothingly down his back and the hand he had unintentionally sunk into, lifting his head to meet the sympathetic sapphire and emerald gazes of his two new, unwitting, Potentials. They _definitely_ had magic, and a lot of it, it was just completely untrained, something that would have never happened in Clow's time. "Death is a part of life, this is a fact I'm well aware of. It just saddens me that she died so young." he stated softly, shaking the memories away as he floated back up to eye-level.

"In any case, all of the Potentials I've chosen before waited until _after_ I explained everything to them, before the Cards were released in a _controlled_ fashion meant to test their full potential before facing my partner, the Judge." he explained, giving them a moderately annoyed glare, receiving a slightly sheepish from both of them "For them all to be released like this, to just run wild..." he hesitated, recalling what Clow had told them before his died "'When the seal on them are broken, a catastrophe will befall the world'" he quoted "The Cards are, as I said, immensely powerful spirits of nature. They can manipulate the world around them, bend reality in a way only the most powerful of magics can. While some are fairly passive, despite their power -such as both the Windy and the Wood- and others are merely mischievous -not meaning to cause harm, but doing so simply because they underestimate the strength of that which is facing them, such as the Firey- some of them are _highly_ aggressive and won't hesitate to bite and bite _hard_ if they don't have a firm hand guiding them."

"And you expected _us_ to regather these cards?" Usagi asked skeptically "_We_ who didn't even know we _had_ magic until today, much less had any training in it. Sakura-chan and I have gymnastics training, more or less taught ourselves Free Running out of necessity and two years of _school club level_ martial arts upon encouragement from Sakura-chan's brother. How are we suppose to do what your previous Master, as you yourself stated, took _years_ to do with _years_ of training in his art?"

Sighing heavily again, Kero shook his head and gave them a Look "I don't know. I really don't. But you released the Cards and they _need_ to be regathered. The test has already begun... I..." he paused, a thought he really didn't want to believe coming to mind "Master Clow had a powerful gift in foresight. He often spoke of things that didn't come to pass until years later. Before he died, he spoke of seeing one who would be his ultimate successor... our future Master. Considering the way the Cards were released, I believe one of you may be the one who spoke of."

"But we-" Sakura started, halting as he turned that Look directly on her.

"Whether you are or you aren't, the Cards _need_ to be regathered. Master Clow changed me so I was directly connected with the Firey and Earthy Cards. Without them in possession of a sufficiently powerful magic user, I can't change into my True Form." he explained, pointed down at the picture on the cover of the Book "This was done to protect me. I can sustain my energy levels with food and spending time out in the sun -I am the Sun Guardian for a reason after all- but my True Form burns through that energy ten times faster than this, my False Form, does. If my energy levels were to fall to low I would, at best, fall unconscious or, at worse..." he hesitated, before resolving to tell them _everything_; with no training they would have a hard enough time with him keeping information from them... even if it was information he was technically _suppose_ to keep from them "At worse I could simply fade from existence."

"Fade..." Usagi whispered, aborting her knee-jerk reaction to snatch him up and hold him close in an attempt to protect his seemingly fragile looking form.

"I am a living being. I eat. I sleep. I dream. I am capable of any emotion you are, including love and hate. However, that is merely because that is how Master Clow created me. In the end, I am a a living soul in the body of a magical construct. To be highly active, my body requires a connection to a more powerful magic source, hence the reason why I remained inactive within the book except while testing a Potential. I'm not as dependent as my partner, the Moon Guardian, but the connection is still required, for emergencies if nothing else."

"Your partner? Where are they?" Sakura questioned; that was the second time the Sun Guardian had mentioned them.

"I don't know." Kero shook his head "And I'm not suppose to either. Yue is the impartial Judge and as such he doesn't interact with the Potentials as I do. He judges them on their ability to command the Cards alone, unclouded by any fondness inevitably developed towards any for make it that far. No matter how powerful the one wielding them is, the Cards won't obey one they don't respect. If the Cards don't obey, Yue will fail the Potential and their memories of us are erased. Until the time of the Final Judgment, however, Yue remains in hibernation within his false form. Unlike myself, his false form appears however he wills it to be. He tends to change it ever few decades when it reaches it's prime and stops aging." he explained.

Sighing heavily, Usagi traded a look with her cousin -who clearly wanted no part in this, despite the Odd Dream they had been having- before shaking her head. "Alright, Keroberos-san. If we agree to do this, you have to remember a few things." she started, once again pinning the Sun Guardian with a Look "First, I don't know how it was in Clow Reed's time, but here school is mandatory until we're fifteen, which we are very much _not_. That means, whether we like or not, we're going to be stuck in a classroom for eight hours five days a week and four on Saturdays. And that's not even including our practices..." she paused, momentarily wilting "Not that that's a problem for me anymore." she mumbled, receiving a conciliatory pat on the back from her cousin.

"Err...?"

"Yamanaka-sensei, our cheer squad instructor, is real strict about people on the squad showing up to _every_ practice, _way_ more strict that she really needs to be considering we don't even have competitions at our level. For some reason, Kenji-jisama took the whole family to Osaka for break, making her miss the first week of school _and practices_. Despite having no choice in the matter, Yamanaka-sensei kicked her off the squad." Sakura explained.

"Ah..." Kero nodded in faux understanding and sympathy, despite having really no idea _what_ a cheer squad was all about. "Well, I suppose there's not much we can do about that for the moment. I suppose once we found the Erase we could make whoever is in charge forget about you but it's kind of... well, _permanent_."

"Uh... yeah, no. Bad idea." Usagi immediately shook her head "No matter how much I'd love to get out of going to school, I'd rather not make it so the only people who even remember we exist be those currently in this room. Because to pull it off we would have to purge that deeply."

"Not only would we have to use it on the school administrators, but all our schoolmates, half the adults in the city, and not to mention our families." Sakura nodded in agreement "Any adult who saw us out of school would have to be hit to, otherwise they would report us for truancy."

Humming thoughtfully, Kero nodded in agreement. Truth be told, the whole situation was just... troublesome. Not only were the Cards out wild, but he was dealing with two Potentials _simultaneously_, something that had never happened before, and they were, in every sense of the word, _children_. Virtually every aspect of their lives were dictated by the adults around them, limiting their ability to respond to when a Card chose to show itself. That alone could lead to catastrophe. "Alright, what else?"

"Eh? Oh, right! The second, and really more important thing you need to remember is that we are both ten years old with no prior magical training. This means there are going to be quite a few times when you are going to have to _explain_ something to us instead of just telling us to do something and expecting us to understand the what, when, where and how, never mind the why."

"Understandable." Kero agreed easily.

"This can easily be avoided by telling us anything you can think of about what we're going to be doing ahead of time. It will take some doing, but I'm pretty sure I can convince Mom to let me come home with Sakura-chan after school. We can set aside a some time after homework for us to do a Q&A about the Cards."

"I can do that." Kero agreed again.

"_After_ homework?" Sakura questioned, giving her cousin a sly, amused smirk. Usagi's hatred for studying was just about to the levels of _legendary_ among their classmates. It wasn't that she was stupid or didn't understand what they were learning, far from it in fact; she was just lazy in regards to anything that bored her, which unfortunately included school and all things related to it.

"As much as I hate the thought, I'm going to have to pull my average up at least full grade level for us to pull this off." Usagi muttered, pouting at the merely thought of her free time being eaten up by _studying_. She just didn't see the point of spending her free time doing something they'd already been forced to waste half their day doing.

"What if you can't convince your parents?" Sakura questioned.

Huffing, Usagi leaned against the desk and shook her head "Then I'll lie and say I'm going to Tomoyo's. Daddy actually _likes_ Sonomi-basan, so he shouldn't argue... come to think of it, maybe we should do this at Tomoyo's house anyway. Our crazy cousin is _meddlesome_. I don't know when and I don't know how, but you just _know_ she's going to find a way to get herself involved in this."

"Erm... question?" the Sun Guardian suddenly spoke up, wondering how he managed to get completely excluded from this conversation "Exactly how many cousins do you two have?"

"Umm, altogether? There's five of us." Usagi said after a moment of thought "Sakura-chan and her big brother Touya-kun. Me and my little brother Shingo-chan. And then there's Tomoyo-chan."

"Though technically Tomoyo-chan is our second cousin." Sakura added with a shrug "My mom and Usagi's mom, Ikuko-basan, were twins. Sonomi-basama was their cousin." Sakura elaborated.

Nodding, Kero bit his tongue and mentally slapped himself before he could ask the immensely insensitive question of 'were?'. The blonde had already mentioned speaking to her own mother, which clearly meant that the brunette's was dead. "Well, I don't know about getting your cousin involved but-"

"Believe me, Keroberos-san. If we don't, she'll get find away in on her own." Usagi interrupted "I don't know how she does it, but she _always_ finds a way to get in the middle of the action, usually with that annoy camera of hers."

Despite all things, Sakura couldn't help but grimace and nod in agreement.

Sighing, Kero just nodded "I'll think about it. Was there anything else?"

"Erm... no, actually. Those were the really important ones." Usagi answered after a moment.

"Aright, both of you go stand over there while I figure how to word this. I've never had to do it for two before so that standard Summoning isn't going to work." the Sun Guardian ordered, waving them over to the middle of the room.

"Why did we agree to this again?" Sakura questioned. Really, she was all ready to argue that she couldn't do it to the bitter end, but her cousin had somehow just managed to agree for the _both of them_.

"A voice in the back of my head that sounds suspiciously like your brother talking about taking responsibility for our actions."

"Why does your conscience sound like my brother?"

"I don't know, and that's what scares me."

"Alright you two. Quiet down... and try not to scream." Kero spoke up, his glowing form floating up in front of them before they could protest, the room around them fading into a muted void as, for the second time in their lives, a Summoning Circle came to life beneath their feet _**"Key of the Seal. I, Keroberos, the Beast of the Seal, summon you. Before you stands two who have inadvertently released the Cards from the Book that contained them. Their names are Sakura and Usagi and they wish a Contract with you to set right what has been done. Oh Key, grant them the power!"**_ he invoked. Behind him, a marble-sized ball of light floated out of the keyhole of the book followed swiftly, to both their surprise and his, by a second _**"Release!"**_ At his command, a wind suspiciously similar to the one invoked by the Windy spun to life as the glowing orbs exploded to encompass the entire room, revealing two expanding silhouettes against the bright background. "Sakura! Usagi! Grab the staffs!" the Guardian commanded, putting as much power as he could spare into keeping the Summoning Circle active.

Creeping forward, completely blinded by the light around them, the two girls each reached for one staff in particular, no hesitation in the one they were going for as they unconsciously tapped into their fledgling magical abilities, allowing it to guide them to the one meant for them. Simultaneously closing their hands around their chosen staff, they felt them expanding in their hands as the Sun Guardian crowed in excitement in the background. Unfortunately, the moment they did so they become momentarily night blind as the light and the Summoning Circle beneath them just vanished, leaving them blinking owlishly as their vision came back, revealing Kero _eating their desert_!

"Congratulations, girls! Not every day one gets to witness the birth of _two_ new Card Captors!" he grinned, seemingly oblivious to the Death GlaresTM he was receiving.

"Keroberos!"

-oOoOoOo-

"I am absolutely positive I can't do this. How did I let Usagi-chan talk me into this?! _I'm_ suppose to be the impulsive one, not her!" Sakura complained, brushing out her hair as she got ready for bed, her new staff -in keychain form, of course- hanging around her neck. No matter how much she was complaining, she felt... connected to it. It felt wrong not having it on her. She could only suppose it was the magic at work. Kero had said she and her cousin were making a Contract, hadn't he?

"So squishy!"

"You're not even listening, are you?!"

"You'll be fine." Kero assured, even as she snatched him up by the scruff, stopping his bouncing. "It's not like I'm making you do this alone, Sakura. You and your cousin are working together on this and I'll be right there with you two, advising you as to the best way to recapture the Cards until you start getting the hang of it."

"And then what? You'll abandon ship?" Sakura questioned, worrying her bottom lip and doubt continued to plague her mind.

"I'll still be there, but you have to remember that you two need to earn the Card's respect and learn to properly command them. Soon after you capture the last of them, you'll be facing Yue." Kero warned.

"Is he that bad...?" Sakura asked.

"Take the description of that sensei you told me about, times their behavior by about a hundred and you might be somewhere in the ballpark of Yue in terms of sheer icicle." Kero said flatly before sighing at the sheer odds that were going against these girls "I'm sorry to say he's probably going to be twice as hard on you two as he's ever been on anyone else, due to the fact that you have to live up to not only Clow Reed but... but..." he trailed off, his words coming out as little more than a soft breath "but Maiya."

"The... one who came before us? The girl who... died, before she could finish doing whatever it is one of us will be needing to do with the Cards if we manage to win your partner over?" Sakura questioned softly.

"Yeah..." Kero swallowed, limply hanging in the air as memories of what could have been surfaced. Before they could consume him, however, a fierce wind blew through the open window, knocking him from his thoughts and nearly knocking them over.

"That's a strong wind. Weather report didn't say anything about a storm tonight..." Sakura muttered, pushing her way to the window to try and close it.

As she struggled against it, Kero hopped up and stuck his head out, his senses singing at the presences of that which he hadn't felt since he woke up. "Sakura!"

Popping her head out the window, the novice Sorceress could only stare in awe and no small amount of growing fear at the form of the absolutely _enormous_ bird that flew overhead, a tiny part of her that sounded suspiciously like Tomoyo wondering why no one else was making a fuss over it and what would be the best kind of lens to use to _prove_ she'd seen it. "What is it?"

"A Clow Card!"

"_That's_ a Clow Card?!" Sakura gaped.

"That's the Fly. It's a fairly gentle Card, so it's about as perfect as you're going to get for your first capture." Kero explained "Now come on, this is no time to be impressed! Hurry up!"

"And do _what_?!" Sakura squeaked, leaning further out her window in wide-eyed disbelieve. Surely he wasn't implying she was somehow suppose to capture _that_.

-oOoOoOo-

"You, Kero-chan, are crazy. And I'm crazy for listening you!" Sakura complained, even as she skated _towards_ the enormous construct. Kero was given no chance to reply as the Card decided to do it's level best to imitate Rodan, conjuring us an burst of wind that tossed both he and his new charge into the air. It was only Sakura's well-honed spacial awareness, perfected from years of gymnastics flips, free running and being tossed in their martial arts class, that kept her head from feeling like it had been subject to an egg beater, allowing her to remain standing when the Sun Guardian lowered her to the ground with more strength than looked possible in his tiny form. Despite her previous thoughts, she was suddenly very glad she hadn't had time to call her cousin; Kero would have never been able to catch the both of them.

"Sakura, your magic!"

"What?"

"The Key! Do just as I told you earlier!"

Nodding, Sakura pulled the Key off of her neck and held it in her hand, summoning every last vestige of courage she could muster. _**"The Key which hides the powers of the Dark! Show your true powers before me! I, Sakura, command you under our contract! Release!"**_ Ignoring the blinding glow, she gripped with expanded staff with a steadier hand than she really felt, absently twirling it a few times before clutching it to her chest, looking to the Guardian for instructions.

"Alright, quick rundown of the Fly. It's attributed to wind. Given that it's of the same time and weaker, you should be able to capture it with the Windy card you have now." Kero explained quickly.

"Are you sure?" Sakura questioned uncertainly.

Glancing at her, fairly impressed at how well she was holding herself together given how utterly terrified he knew she was, just like every other Card Captor during their first time, Kero nodded "In any case, we have to get closer. With very few exception, captures aren't something that can be done at a dis- ahhh!" his explanation of cut off as they both dove for the ground to avoid the Fly card as it buzzed them.

Nothing got the adrenalin going like a magical construct the size of a small jet doing a flyby two feet over your head.

"I thought you said the Fly card was _gentle_!" Sakura yelled "If that was gentle, I don't want to know what you called _aggressive_!"

"Believe me, that _was_ gentle." Kero mumbled, even as he kept his eyes locked on the Card that kept buzzing them. The girl didn't have enough experience with the Cards to realize that the Fly wasn't actually _attacking_ them. The most aggressive move it had thus made was that little wind burst, and even _that_ was just to get their attention; it was _playing with them_, and not in the sadistic 'I'm eventually going to get bored and just kill you' sort of way either. "Sakura, use the Windy card!" he nudged, trying to get her to remember what she was suppose to be doing.

"Y-Yeah-"

"It's coming back!" Kero warned as they once again hit the deck "Use Windy, hurry!"

"How am I supposed to- EEK!" turning tail as the Card banked, Sakura took off with the Sun Guardian at her side the Fly on her heals "You said I had to be close to capture it. How am I suppose to capture something that keeps buzzing us at mach one?!"

"The point of being a successful Card Captor is to figure out stuff like this!" Kero lectured "You aren't stupid so-"

"Something..." the young Sorceress muttered, an idea coming to her as her mind registering the concrete slabs of the sloped viaduct wall as they rushed by it "I am absolutely crazy!" she shrieked, even as she took off at a speed usually reserved for situations such as 'class-starts-in-five-minutes-and-I-just-woke-up!' .

"Sakura, what are yo-?" he couldn't finish as the Fly 'gently' nudged him out of the way and took off after the girl who was _finally_ getting into the game.

Dropping her center of gravity, Sakura allowed the Fly to overtake her just a bit before initiating her plan, allowing momentum to take her _up_ the wall before planting her hand at the top, her brace taking the friction of the fast-paced move as she pushed herself into a flip, landing right between it's wings, a thrill she hadn't felt in years -associated with accomplishing something she wasn't absolutely certain she'd be able to pull off- blooming in her chest. _**"Wind, become a binding chain..."**_ she whispered, making an educated guess founded entirely off magic-based manga, throwing her _Will_ behind her words, _willing_ the magic to work and the Card to somehow understand what she wanted of it. She was rewarded for her belief as a Summoning Circle lit up underneath her as she used a card trick to toss her Card forward, spinning her staff a few times before bringing it down on it just as it hit the top of the circle, pushing an extra bit of magic into it to complete the invocation _**"WINDY!"**_

Unlike the first time she used it, this time the spirit represented on the Card actually came to life, bursting from the card in a graceful arc, looping around Fly in a manner that caused it to become grounded without actually hurting it, just as she wanted. As soon as they hit the ground, Sakura allowed herself to slide off and roll backwards several feet, the Circle following her, not even having to ask the incoming Sun Guardian what she needed to do as the works unexpectedly came to her, like she'd always known them but never had a reason to use them. _**"Return to the guise that you were meant to be in! CLOW CARD!"**_

And like that, it was over. The Fly, in its dormant form, peacefully floated to the ground at her feet while the Windy returned to her hand, a feeling of approval, and maybe just a touch of smug satisfaction, brushing against her mind as she held it.

"Not bad, Sakura! Not bad at all!" Kero praised, coming in to float next her head.

"I'm crazy! I thought I was gonna die! What was I _thinking_?!" Sakura gasped, fighting to get her breath back as the adrenaline wore off, leaving her sink to her knees in shock as what she'd just done _really_ sank in.

"Gotta admit, I've never see a Capture _quite_ like that before!" Kero laughed, patting her on the head "If your cousin does even half as well for her first, we'll have these Cards back together in no time!" he crowed, doing a little mid-air happy dance before calming himself, eager to show her what a _tamed_ Clow Card could do, the Windy notwithstanding "Well, you did Capture this Card. Why don't you try it out?"

"What does it do?" Sakura questioned curiously, wondering if it would turn back into the giant bird she'd just finished containing. The Guardian only grinned, waving his hand at the Card. Staring at it, she wondered if she needed to make some sort of special chant like she had the Windy before shrugging, going with the method of her first attempt as she twirled her staff like a baton, bringing the beak of the decorative head down on the Card as another Summoning Circle came to life at her feet _**"FLY!"**_

To her awe, the wings on the decorative head glowed and extended until each were nearly as long as she was tall, feathers flitting across her vision in a manner that _immediately_ brought the Odd Dream to mind _'These feathers... was this what I was seeing?'_ she thought as she absentmindedly mounted the now flight capable staff, feeling a touch of thrill brush her mind as the wings snapped open, shooting them up into the air. She couldn't help but marvel at the fact that she didn't feel afraid of falling at all, no matter how far she leaned. It was almost like the Fly was assuring her it wouldn't let her and would catch her it it somehow did. _'Now I understand why I so willingly jumped. Fly wouldn't let me fall far... butUsagi invoked something too in the Dream. Unless there's two Fly cards...?'_

"Hey, Kero-chan?"

"Yeah?"

"Is there another Card that manifests with feathers?" she questioned, getting a puzzled look from the Guardian.

"Well... I'm pretty sure the Jump does, though it's differs from person to person in regards to lower level Cards like Jump and Fly. Maiya was a huge multinational mythology buff, so her variation of Fly merged with her in a manner that made her look something like a Harpy. She had the time of her life flying around the woods near her house..." he answered after a moment of thought, just a touch of sadness at the reminder of his friend. "Why do you ask?" he wondered, maintaining a speed to hover just in front of her.

Biting her lip, Sakura thought a moment and then nodded. He had promised to be honest with them. The least they could do was share the courtesy "You Master, Clow Reed, wasn't the only one with knowledge of a possible future. For the past two years, Usagi-chan and I have been having what we dubbed 'The Odd Dream'; sometimes we'd have it every night, sometimes we could go weeks or even months without and we'd _always_ have it at the same time. We'd go through it feeling like we were passengers in our own bodies, aware of everything, with thoughts and emotions apparently our own, but completely cut off from our bodies. We couldn't move them, we couldn't speak and it felt like someone pushed the mute button on the world. Usually it was about a clear as mud, with a few clear parts randomly thrown in, never the same from dream to dream, but last night we both had it again and it was crystal clear, if not limited in how far we could see." she explained, the Guardian's jaw dropping further and further with every sentence "Then, this afternoon when we got home from school, Usagi-chan and I heard you snoring in the basement and found the Book. You know the rest."

"Identical foresight... I've never even _heard_ of that happening before. Foresight is suppose to be an incredibly rare gift." Kero muttered, giving her a questioning look "Has that other cousin you mentioned been having them too?"

"Nope." Sakura shook her head, mentally nudging Fly towards her window as her house came into view, pleased that her intuition was right "She knows about them, though, and is rather annoyed that she doesn't."

Humming thoughtfully as they landed on her windowsill, Fly returning to it's dormant form, Kero plopped himself down on her bed, observing her as she stripped herself of her gear, hiding it under the bed "Looks like I'll have to put more thought than I planned into bringing her into the fold. I don't like unknown factors running loose, especially in a situation like this." he mused sternly, showing off the serious, tactical mind that was often hidden behind his loud, over-exuberant personality.

"I'll talk to them tomorrow, Kero-chan. Promise." Sakura yawned, crawling tiredly into bed as the night caught up with her. As she drifted off to sleep, her last thoughts were that she hoped the rest of the Cards picked a more convenient time to cause havoc; she didn't know if she could keep pulling off the secret-duel-identity thing if it kept cutting into her sleep on a school night.

-oOoOoOo-oOoOoOo-oOoOoOo-

**Preview:**

"Hmm, what a remarkable resemblance." Tomoyo mused with a mask of calm that only barely hid her wicked, triumphant grin.

"Butter wouldn't melt in your mouth, you devil child." Usagi muttered, allowing a slight smirk of her own to pull at her lips as she rewound the video to watch her fellow novice Sorceress flying through the air with the use of her newly captured Card, the Fly.


End file.
